Chapter 328: A Grand Gift

“What… what just happened?”

A Title-level Reincarnator cloaked in shadows spoke with a dry, trembling voice, each word forced out as if scraping through clenched teeth. The sheer terror in his tone was palpable, even through his heavy shroud.

“It felt like… something just vanished…” A massive figure built like a mountain stood pale-faced, sweat trickling down his forehead. His labored breathing echoed harshly through the dead silence of the distorted space-time rift.

“Where… where did the Witch Lord and the others go?” someone asked with a trembling voice, their gaze sweeping the area where the four had once stood.

But the space was empty.

Not a trace of energy remained. It was as if those four once-invincible Title-level powerhouses had never existed—just a collective hallucination.

“Something must have… descended here.”

As beings with power comparable to the Nascent Soul stage in the cultivation system, these Title-level Reincarnators possessed unparalleled perception.

Even though Lu Yan had sealed the space-time with the Divine Court’s laws, he hadn’t completely erased the lingering impressions of that moment.

They could vaguely recall that something unfathomable—an existence beyond all comprehension—had briefly descended upon this twisted space-time rift.

The pressure from that presence crushed any thought of resistance. Before such a divine force, they felt smaller than specks of dust.

And then came that wave of annihilation—a flood of pure, silent destruction—that wiped the Witch Lord and his three allies completely from existence, leaving no trace behind.

Yet when they tried to trace the source, to find even the slightest thread leading back to the one who had unleashed it, they found—nothing.

Causality itself had been severed.

It was as though the Witch Lord and his cohorts had never set foot here, their very existence erased at the root.

And yet, in the depths of their memories, the images of the Witch Lord and those terrifying moments remained vivid.

This stark contradiction between memory and reality felt like two invisible hands tearing at their minds, seeding a deep-rooted fear that spread like wildfire.

If the Eye of God was an overwhelming but observable force—one that might inspire resistance—then what had happened just now was something entirely different.

That illusion of a divine kingdom descending, the execution stroke from the Judge’s Brush… it was utterly beyond comprehension.

The unknown is always more terrifying than the known. And the less one understands it, the more one fears it.

In just a fleeting moment, the surviving Title-level Reincarnators exchanged countless thoughts via divine sense.

And finally, they all turned their eyes to the only person in the field who remained composed—Blood River Demon Lord.

“Demon Lord! Who was that just now?”

“You know something! Spill it!”

“What the hell kind of secret is this world hiding?”

A barrage of sharp questions came at him like cannon fire.

Some of the more cunning Reincarnators even recalled how Blood River Demon Lord had previously humbled himself before the natives, even going so far as to challenge his fellow Reincarnators to protect their interests.

Now, in hindsight, they realized there had to be a reason behind that behavior. That kind of humility could only be driven by enormous, unseen profit or terrifying fear.

Blood River Demon Lord, however, no longer maintained his humble front. The aura of a demonic overlord once again surged from him.

He let out a cold snort and spoke in a lofty, almost disdainful tone. “Many truths… are far beyond your level to comprehend. But one thing—I can tell you clearly.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping across every Reincarnator present. His voice carried an eerie undertone:

“This world, while small in scope and seemingly weak in terms of local power systems, is fundamentally different from the many planes we’ve traversed.

If any of you have tried to trace this world’s origin, you would’ve discovered it doesn’t align with the cosmic structure we’re familiar with.

And yet, its world-tier ranking is likely far beyond what any of you can imagine.

Why else would the Main God itself desire to seize control of it—so badly, it would launch such a massive Reincarnator invasion?”

“This is a chessboard. A battlefield where great beings beyond comprehension make their moves. And we, whether we like it or not, are mere pawns—pieces moved by hands we can’t see.”

There was a trace of self-mockery in Blood River Demon Lord’s tone, tinged with a helpless complexity.

“As fellow Reincarnators struggling under the Main God’s thumb, I can only offer you this much.”

“Whether you choose to stumble blindly forward or wake up and recognize reality… is your own fate.”

With that, he ignored the Reincarnators’ varied expressions, casually slashed the air open with a hand, and stepped into the rift that emerged.

Before his figure vanished completely, he left behind a final, cold statement:

“Three days from now—this place again. Collect your Heaven-Shrouding Talismans. Miss it, and don’t come crying.”

The gathered Title-level Reincarnators watched him disappear into the rift, and once again, a heavy silence descended on the distorted space-time.

This time, not a single soul dared to speak out—much less object.

They were veterans of countless life-and-death missions, brimming with knowledge and battle experience.

From instinct alone, they wanted to deny Blood River Demon Lord’s wild claims.

A world beyond the Main God’s reach? Greater existences than the Main God? It defied everything they knew.

And yet…

The surreal scene they had just witnessed—the arrival of divine judgment—seemed to confirm his words in the most brutal way possible.

Even if they still had doubts, none of them dared lay a finger on the Heaven-Shrouding Talismans again.

If they wanted a talisman, they’d follow the mission protocol Blood River Demon Lord issued.

And so they waited—nervously, uneasily—for the fated three days to pass, and for destiny’s next move to be revealed.

…

The figure of Blood River Demon Lord stepped silently out of the void, reappearing outside the Council Hall.

His demonic aura, previously billowing like a bloodstorm, immediately shrank when it touched the invisible barrier around the building. It condensed into a faint, blood-colored mist that coiled around the luxurious robe embroidered with dark arcane symbols on his body.

He smoothed his wrinkled collar, took a deep breath, and forced down the unease that lingered in his heart from Lu Yan’s terrifying power display.

Even though this wasn’t the first time he’d witnessed Lu Yan’s strength, that casual, one-stroke obliteration of four fellow Title-level Reincarnators had chilled him to the bone.

This young Chairman… was far more dangerous than he had ever imagined.

Standing before the cold, metallic doors of the office, he raised his hand to knock—then paused.

After hesitating a moment, he lowered his hand and bowed deeply in a posture of absolute respect.

In a humble tone, he said, “Reporting to the Chairman, subordinate Blood River has urgent matters to discuss.”

The door didn’t open. Only Lu Yan’s calm voice echoed from within.

“You leaked the mission early. Since it’s your first offense, you’ll join the others in destroying three Soul Towers after three days.”

Blood River Demon Lord’s face showed no resentment, only relief.

He quickly bowed and answered reverently, “Thank you, Chairman!”

Inside the office, Lu Yan withdrew his divine gaze from the space-time rift, utterly indifferent to Blood River’s petty schemes.

He had already decided to use the Heaven-Shrouding Talismans as bait—to drive the Reincarnators into storming the massive corporate defenses.

Naturally, he wouldn’t allow the Witch Lord to sabotage this carefully laid plan.

Sealing the space-time with Divine Court authority, then channeling Yin-Yang Qi to form the Judge’s Brush and erasing four enemies from existence—that had created an overwhelming shock among the Reincarnators.

But in truth, that move had pushed Lu Yan to the edge of his current power, without using his true trump cards.

To ensure absolute lethality and maximum intimidation, he had even invoked a trace of his Sovereign Aspect’s power into the strike.

“Still… the gap in cultivation realm is not something I can ignore,” Lu Yan sighed inwardly.

He examined his condition. Mid-stage Nascent Soul realm.

Within this cyberpunk world—where the spiritual energy system was just beginning to take root—it was already a peak-level powerhouse.

Combined with his many terrifying cards and techniques, it was enough to keep the Reincarnators in check.

But Lu Yan knew well—these Reincarnators were just the appetizers.

Behind them stood the Main God… and its far-reaching schemes for this world.

More concerning was the true controller of the world itself—the nearly omniscient and omnipotent AI God.

Against such enemies, a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator was still far from enough.

“If I can trigger a full upgrade of the Netherworld Heaven, perhaps I can ride the feedback energy from the realm’s ascension to break through multiple major stages in one go…”

A bold idea began to take shape in Lu Yan’s mind.

“For now… I’ll sit back and let these chess pieces put on a grand show.”

As he whispered, his consciousness sank into the Human Sovereign Banner, entering the ever-expanding Netherworld Heaven within.

Inside the majestic city of Fengdu, countless ghostly soldiers and generals in armor labored day and night under the command of the Five Great Ghost Gods.

Their task: to inscribe the Heavenly Dao Code that Lu Yan had written, etching it onto special talisman paper formed from pure Netherworld Qi.

Thanks to the isolated and self-contained nature of the Netherworld Heaven, they could shield the codes from interference by the ever-changing constants of the cyberpunk realm.

This ensured that the codes within each Heaven-Shrouding Talisman would remain perfectly intact until activation.

Once the code was inscribed, each talisman would undergo further refinement by the Five Ghost Gods—using divine sense as brush, ghostly divine power as ink—to draw intricate formation scripts across its surface.

These scripts not only concealed the talisman’s true nature but also sealed it with Divine Court power, preventing premature exposure to the outside world’s forces.

This way, the talisman would remain pure and untouched—until the moment of activation, when it would unleash its true ability to block the AI God’s perception.

Thousands of ghost soldiers operated like a flawless assembly line, churning out talismans day and night.

In the span of a single incense stick, tens of thousands of Heaven-Shrouding Talismans could be completed.

These talismans—now seen as priceless lifelines by the Reincarnators of City 14—were stacked like cheap paper in the Netherworld. Piles and piles of them filled the surroundings.

But Lu Yan knew—this still wasn’t enough.

He didn’t merely want to bring down a few Soul Towers.

What he sought… was a grand deception—so vast that it could veil an entire world.

To cast a war fog thick enough to obscure even the AI God’s divine sight.

To use these talismans to deliver a gift—a gift that the AI God would remember for the rest of eternity.

(End of Chapter)